By Zephyria The effect of this utterly unpleasant miasma was soon apparent. The monsters that had been relentlessly pursuing them collapsed the moment they touched the miasma. They writhed for a moment before going limp, as if dead. Yoon Seung-ryong, watching the scene, broke out in a cold sweat and laughed.
“H-huh, this isn’t some instant-kill poison, is it? Surely Team Leader isn’t trying to kill us when Yohan is here.”
Indeed, as he said, the monsters’ presence had only faded, not disappeared, so it wasn’t an instant-kill poison. At least, Lee Hyun-muk didn’t seem intent on killing them.
“We should get out of here quickly.”
Joo Ho-young urged them, his voice laced with impatience. Fortunately, Lee Chan-ha’s barrier wasn’t fixed, allowing them to move. The problem was that their target had deviated from the path of ordinary monsters. As they hurried to escape the area, Joo Ho-young urgently stopped them.
“Wait! Look behind you!”
At the cry, Yohan reflexively turned around and looked at the heart again, flinching in surprise. Despite having moved quite a distance in that short time, the heart had surprisingly not moved further away. The heart had simply grown larger to match the distance they had covered. When they stopped, the heart also stopped growing.
“I thought I’d seen everything in the Abyss, but this is a truly unsettling sight.”
Seo Yakrin’s hair rippled as she bit her lip. The heart was now so large that they couldn’t see it even by tilting their heads back. Even as they stood there, unable to move or act, the dark red blood gushing from the heart pooled, and the water level around them gradually rose. After a moment of thought, Lee Chan-ha asked again.
“What about freezing it?”
“I have a feeling it won’t work well… but I’ll try.”
Joo Ho-young froze the heart. It seemed to have an effect for a moment. However, in less than a few seconds, it shattered with a loud crack, and the heart, now even larger, surged upwards again. The streams of blood it expelled became more violent, and the chilling miasma grew even denser.
“No! It’s too weak; it breaks too quickly.”
With freezing also having failed, Lee Chan-ha looked back and forth between the heart and Yohan before making a decision.
“I’ll have to put a barrier over the heart. I’ll hold it off while you all escape as far as you can. If you fly, you should be able to get away before the heart grows any larger.”
“I can’t leave Chan-ha Hyung alone!”
Yohan exclaimed, startled by the bold decision. Glancing down at the rising water, which now came past his knees, Lee Chan-ha smiled faintly.
“Don’t worry about me, Yohan-ssi. I won’t die, no matter what. Team Leader’s Negative Reinforcement means he won’t give up, right? He’s the one who saved us even in the Abyss.”
“But….”
“The worst that can happen is I’ll just stay here, asleep.”
There was no more time to hesitate. Persuaded by Lee Chan-ha, Yohan finally nodded. Lee Chan-ha took a deep breath and glared at the giant, pulsating heart, or perhaps, the grotesque object that sometimes resembled a sleeping person’s face. Seo Yakrin wrapped the group in her golden psychokinesis.
“Alright, Vice Team Leader. I’m ready.”
Soon, another light blue barrier unfurled from the top of the heart. It was a vast and sturdy barrier, the kind only seen from High-level Awakeners. Creating the barrier at an astonishing speed, Lee Chan-ha shouted.
“Now!”
Transforming into a Monstrous Bird in an instant, Seo Yakrin grabbed the group and soared upwards. They struggled through the dense miasma, their movements affected but not enough to lose consciousness. The heart also grew larger to catch up, but it was blocked by Lee Chan-ha’s barrier and could not grow further.
Yohan looked back, his eyes wide, watching the light blue, bead-like barrier become tautly filled with dark red light. It had only been a moment, but the immense amount of dark red blood that poured out formed a pool large enough to be called a lake. It was a sight that conjured the image of a black lake. However, Lee Chan-ha, the blue barrier, the dark red heart, and the pool soon vanished into the darkness.
Yohan resolutely turned his head forward. He then directed Seo Yakrin.
“Yakrin Noona, please go a little to the right! Yes, that direction.”
A moment later, there was a sound, as if something had shattered and erupted behind them, but Yohan did not look back again.
Seo Yakrin flew for quite some time. Looking down from above, they could clearly feel the space expanding. Joo Ho-young shouted over the wind.
“It’s not just expanding from the inside! Look over there!”
“…!”
In the pitch darkness, indistinguishable to civilians, they could barely make out the forms of buildings that kept appearing. They were growing in volume from the outside, swallowing their surroundings.
Yohan’s body trembled involuntarily with fear of the unimaginable events unfolding and worry for Lee Chan-ha. Tears wouldn’t even come. Joo Ho-young noticed and encouraged him.
“Don’t worry too much, Yohan. You know how fast Yakrin Noona flies. We’ll arrive soon.”
“Yes, I won’t worry….”
Yohan’s words, spoken with forced cheerfulness, stopped. Had something fallen from above just now? Like rain… Was it a mistake? But then Seo Yakrin cried out and flapped her wings violently. Something was indeed falling from above. But it wasn’t rain.
Aaaah! Aaaah! A-aaaah! Aak!
At first, they thought it was the cry of crows. But the cries swiftly brushed past their ears and fell below. Things that had become a pulp were falling from above. Monsters, so overcooked from being inside Lee Hyun-muk that they had lost their form, were falling. Yohan was speechless at the sight, something he wouldn’t even see in nightmares.
Instead of water, sticky, tar-like substances fell onto Seo Yakrin’s massive wings. She faltered, then quickly descended. If she continued flying, they would all crash.
Kuwung…! Landing somewhat unstably, Seo Yakrin returned to her original form by about half. Even so, she kept her giant wings extended, shielding Yohan and the team from the disgusting pulp shower. In a place with nowhere to hide, Seo Yakrin alone endured the falling lumps. Yohan urgently cried out.
“Noona! I’ll purify it quickly…!”
“No! Don’t waste it here; save it!”
Seo Yakrin grumbled in response. While it might have been possible normally, her purification power was limited because she had already used her Purification Field. Yohan’s hand tightened around the vibrating spear.
Soon, golden psychokinesis surged forth. It wasn’t as perfect as Lee Chan-ha’s barrier, but it formed a densely woven golden net that covered the area above. It was enough to ward off the living pulp.
Ugh, Gaaah….
This horrific rain didn’t just hinder Seo Yakrin’s flight. The things that wriggled and crawled on the ground began to stick together. It seemed they shouldn’t be left to clump up, but scattering them was futile as they reformed, and more were constantly falling from the sky. In the meantime, large ones gathered to form bodies, and smaller ones attached themselves as appendages.
With a boiling groan, a horned creature rose. A large monster, resembling an elk rather than a deer, attempted an attack, but Yoon Seung-ryong’s poison mist, spread on the ground, reached it first. The monster staggered. However, instead of falling, it charged forward, emitting toxic miasma.
“Hey! It’s become a poison deer! What are we going to do?!”
Seo Yakrin, struggling to hold the monster with her psychokinesis, yelled in exasperation.
“Is it my fault! …Yes, it’s my fault! Ugh! Ho-young!”
Then, Joo Ho-young froze it, and the monster’s legs shattered. But it was only for a moment; the pulp covering the ground stuck to it, and its legs reformed. No matter how potent the poison, how many times they cut or struck its legs, it charged endlessly. Its speed was also incredibly fast.
Kwajijijik! Yohan, narrowly dodging the range of its horns scraping the ground, threw himself aside, breaking out in a cold sweat. Dodging the monster’s charge itself wasn’t particularly difficult. The problem was avoiding what was falling from above. Seo Yakrin, for example, was still struggling to remove the substances stuck to her wings from earlier.
“Ah, you damn bastards!”
Seo Yakrin, enraged after her mobility was reduced and she was knocked far away by the monster, unleashed a golden wave from her body. It pushed back the falling golden net from the sky. A brief opening appeared, but anticipating it would be endless, Seo Yakrin shouted.
“I’ll deal with this bastard quickly and come back, so keep advancing!”
“Yakrin Noona…!”
Before Joo Ho-young could even react in surprise, Seo Yakrin, having transformed back into a Monstrous Bird, flapped her wings fiercely. Then, as if by chance, the ground nearby heaved, covering the group and concealing them. The last thing Yohan saw was Seo Yakrin grabbing the deer and soaring into the air. Yoon Seung-ryong urgently pushed Yohan and Joo Ho-young down into the earth, holding his breath.
‘…!’
Yohan, who had even stopped breathing, flinched as the surrounding soil moved. He wondered if this was another anomaly, but it seemed to be Yoon Seung-ryong’s ability.
‘Ah, that’s right….’
He remembered Lee Hyun-muk explaining that his ability was to create acid caves, and he regained his composure. The pulps, after searching for them and wriggling around, eventually gave up and chased after the main body that Seo Yakrin had carried far away. After a considerable time, Yoon Seung-ryong emerged from the earth.
‘Damn, no matter where I look, the situation seems screwed.’
Watching the monster rain pour down in the distant darkness, Yoon Seung-ryong thought. But without voicing it, he turned to his two younger companions. With nearly half their group gone in an instant, Joo Ho-young was fidgeting nervously, and Yohan looked like he could burst into tears if poked. However, unexpectedly, Yohan’s eyes merely reddened slightly before he swallowed hard and said with forced cheerfulness.
“Let’s go! If we go a little further, I think we can reach Hyun-mook Hyung.”